Meet PennyFly Entertainment, Startups of the Year Winner (Malibu, CA)

This interview series celebrates all the phenomenal Startups of the Year Winners. Congratulations! Well-Deserved, Champion.The HackerNoon community is excited to learn more about you!

As the founder of PennyFly Entertainment, what does it mean for you to win this title?

I am a long-time tech nerd and reader of HackerNoon, so it truly means a lot. Before PennyFly was even an idea, I graduated from Penn State with a bachelor’s degree in Cyber Security and was certified to work with the NSA. I fully expected my life would be immersed in all things hacking and counter-hacking, but shortly after graduating, what began as a hobby, writing and performing music turned into a serious career pursuit. Following label offers after moving to LA, I made the decision to stay independent while networking within the industry to build a team around me. This undertaking became much bigger than myself, snowballing into helping more and more artists, and today, we’ve worked with over 170 different artists at all career stages. As PennyFly grew, I began to wonder if I would ever utilize any of that education or if it was an unfortunate waste of time and money…thankfully, it wasn’t.

Everything came full circle as blockchain and AI-driven solutions continued to dominate multiple major industries. My understanding of these technologies allowed PennyFly to integrate them into our services and workflows and ultimately expanded what we do into a new company division, as we have now catered to over a dozen web3-based projects. Big shoutout to our CTO, Dr. Harry Malinski, and CMO, Skye Ruedas, for spearheading these efforts!

Tell us how your startup is changing the world.

I often tell people we’re not exactly “reinventing the wheel” when it comes to artist services. We have mentored under some of the best marketing professionals in the industry and are simply offering the same major-label caliber services you would typically get from signing a larger label deal - what truly makes us different is that we don’t gate-keep these services behind contracts that take ownership, rights, and freedoms away from artists. Having been around for nearly seven years, we continue to be one of the only true label services agencies in the world that can replicate these niche services under one roof (and without the 360-style strings attached). In the past two years, we have seen increasingly heavy interest from artists outside of the US in need of our services, as they are unable to find what we do anywhere else.

What do you love about your team, and why are you the ones to solve this problem?

I feel incredibly blessed to be working alongside such passionate and driven individuals - but most of all, we’ve developed strong friendships over the years and consider each other family. As our artists know well, we are far from the stereotypical “corporate” vibes you see with most companies, especially other marketing agencies and labels. This goes a very long way when it comes to cultivating the right atmosphere for artists to thrive. While we are very results-driven and don’t take shortcuts, we’re also all close friends who enjoy hanging out at the end of a long day…from gaming to watching sports or streaming the latest South Park, we always make time to have some fun. Speaking of family, my wife Raye has been such an integral part of PennyFly becoming what it is today; she is an absolute powerhouse when it comes to dialing in the right branding for our artists, from web development to digital design. In contrast, Harry Malinski’s wife, Melody, has been a huge asset on the administrative side and is growing into a larger creative-driven role to complement our evolving needs in-house.

What sets you apart from the competition?

It really comes down to our unique combination of proven marketing techniques with real accessibility. We don’t do 360 deals or require artists to sign unfavorable contracts in order to get the same teams and services they would otherwise get from well-known labels. It is also entirely up to the artist whether or not they’d like to publicly mention involvement with us - some artists opt for a “silent partnership” where we support them behind the scenes without the portrayal of having been officially “signed”. There are pros and cons to both approaches, as plenty of artists also prefer the opposite, which is why we ultimately leave it up to them. The only thing that really matters to us is ensuring our artists are comfortable, motivated, and inspired to succeed.

Lastly, we seem to be the only company in our niche that showcases a long-form compilation of testimonials featuring a wide variety of artists we’ve worked with, all on camera talking about their experience working with us. We treat our artists like family, which leads not only to success but also to having a lot of fun along the way.

How do you or your company intend to embrace the responsibility of this title in 2024? What goals are you looking forward to accomplishing?

We are simply going to continue doing what we do best: offering great teams to great artists. The traction we gain with our clients continues to speak for itself, and we are growing every week. A major focus for us in 2024 will be scaling up everything we do. This means building out our departments with additional teams to handle more artists without compromising our attention to detail, ability to deliver, and overall results. As our Director of Project Management, Carter Perran has been invaluable in leading successful recruitment efforts and keeping everyone on track.

Are there any artists you are particularly excited about?

Absolutely. One of our biggest passions is working with artists who have incredible talent and potential but need the right exposure to build a truly engaged fanbase. We are expecting big things from Tanya Mezh, Kiraly, J. Lauryn, Amelia Milo, CasPark, and Laura Warshauer, whom we’ve all thoroughly enjoyed working with. There are also some exciting new partnerships in the works as we speak!

2023 has been another crazy year, especially in tech with the Generative AI takeover - is this a trend you are concerned about?

This really is an interesting topic that has many nuances to it. On one hand, we’ve seen an incredible improvement with some of our services that are now supported by AI. From increased efficiency to better results, it’s hard to argue with the advantages these AI tools provide when utilized properly. On the other hand, we can’t forget the value brought by real artists, musicians, and writers. There is a human element that will always transcend machines attempting to reproduce that human feel. Currently, getting the most out of these AI solutions still requires a skilled, intelligent professional to gather some of what the AI produces in order to shape the final result into something practical and presentable.

Any words of wisdom you’d like to share with us?

Whether you are an artist in the early stages of your career or already established, remember that the #1 thing to always focus on is consistency. Staying power is everything. Artists we work with who find the most success in the quickest timeframes remain incredibly consistent in their music release schedules and social media presence. Even if you have an entire team behind you, work ethic is everything - this cannot be overstated enough. If you embody these values throughout your craft and your content and remain true to your authentic self, you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. Overnight success is years in the making as they say, so don’t get discouraged if things don’t take off as quickly as you expect them to. Stay the course and keep going. The ones who win are the ones who simply refuse to give up.